Ironing Sam’s keyboard at NMAAM. I was so happy to see this.
NASHVILLE, TN.–For an edifice fixed in time, a museum can move in many ways. There are moments of discovery and minutes of connection. A museum can be a unifier.
Over Christmas, my brother and I visited the two-year-old National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM) in downtown Nashville. The magnificent 56,000-square-foot museum is a block away from the historic Ryman Auditorium. There are more than 1,500 artifacts, objects, and photos and many of them have Chicago connections: Chess Records, Mahalia Jackson, Sam Cooke, The [...]
The one and only Otis Clay.
Otis Clay was a singer that was filled with goodwill.
No gig was too small, every note he sang created a choir of inspiration.
The world-renowned Chicago-based gospel and soul vocalist died of a heart attack in January 2016. He was 73. He is greatly missed. In a 1988 interview, he asked me, “What is it that makes a man rich?” Without hesitation, he answered, “You’ve contributed something.” Otis was always looking at forward progress.
The City of Chicago will honor this community treasure Otis with an Otis Clay street sign in a dedication ceremony [...]
National Audio Company projects (D. Hoekstra photo)
SPRINGFIELD, Mo.—Rewind.
The National Audio Company near downtown Springfield does more than backtrack the past as the largest manufacturer of cassette tapes in the world. Vintage maple desktops in the company’s first-floor office have classic pink “While You Were Out” notepads. Employees still come to offices and answer phones at National Audio, just a country heartbeat from the birthplace of Route 66.
Company president Steve Stepp is a model train buff and sings the praises of songwriter Neil Young, a long-time Lionel train collector, [...]
Yoshi Sekiguchi on stage in Japan, 1958 (Courtesy of Sekiguchi family.)
Like the best version of life, Yoshinobu “Yoshi” Sekiguchi understood that good art is made without boundaries. The power of imagination can lead to freedom. Open your mind and you hear songs everywhere.
In Japan during the 1960s, Mr. Sekiguchi was known as “The Japanese Hank Williams.” He had a bit country singing role in the film “A Majority of One” (1962) with Rosalind Russell playing a Jewish woman who falls for a Japanese diplomat portrayed by Alec Guinness. In the 1970s, he became a Chicago designer and art director, working [...]
